In the US, the competition to attract students to your department could be pretty rough. During my graduate student days [late eighties], electrical engineering didn't even have to try, while our department [materials science and engineering] went all out to woo engineering undergrads. I still remember our department's poster that occupied every square inch of available space in the campus. It featured pictures of all kinds of hi-fi stuff (space shuttles and circuit boards (!)), and had this slogan:
Materials Science: We make high tech happen.
This slogan is lame compared to the one used by a philosophy department in another university this year.
Good one. Does the IISc do any such things? ;-)
ReplyDeleteNo, we don't have to. The students flock to us! ;-)
ReplyDeleteActually, the real reason is that we don't have an undergrad program.
Didn't you do your undergrad from IT-BHU ? Which would mean through JEE .. I did not know that there was canvasing for students by departments then .. late eighties ! By my time (2000-2004) the process was more mechanized.
ReplyDeleteI know of great stories from old days of the meta dept at bhu, though, where people like Prof.Anantharaman would go out of their way to recruit the best and brightest (had heard a great story about how Prof.K. Chattopadhyay, now with MRC/IISc was recruited etc - might be an urban legend too)
Would be great if you had some anecdotes from you time there.